On the occasion of the exhibition Riley Hooker: Body, Language, Art Omi presents “Crisis Carnival”—part symposia and part variety show with artists, writers, and scholars to think through different strategies of collective response in times of crisis. The event will feature talks and performances by ACCDNTL DRED, Sophie Becker, Zoe Brezsny, Nick Meehan, Mario Miron, Journey Streams, YATTA, and more.  

Body, Language is the first New York solo exhibition of Riley Hooker (American, b. 1982). It features an installation of interconnected inflatable structures for sitting titled SIT(UATION), commissioned sculptures, printed matter, and vinyl “footnotes” at the scale of the building installed across the institution’s walls, ceiling, and floor. The inflatable forms—produced in collaboration with architect Nick Meehan—evolved from Hooker’s publishing practice, and are calibrated for reading. They draw from the rich legacy of pneumatic design, and its entanglement with utopian imaginaries and social change. The structure pushes back against the conservatism of the typical “museum bench,” in order to—as McKenzie Wark has written about the project—“suggest another space-time for another life.”

To design the forms, Hooker turned to postmodern seating, fidget toys, sex manuals, and emergency shelters. In addition to existing built forms, the work borrows a formal logic from plasmodial life-forms, particularly cellular “Slime Mold,” its curious form of collective intelligence, and its ability to form collective bodies capable of sophisticated logistics in times of crisis.

Collaborators

Sophie Becker is an actor and ventriloquist based in New York City. She has performed with her Jerry Mahoney figure at Rockaway Film Festival to open for John Wilson of HBO’s How To with John Wilson, as well as MoMA PS1, The Kraine Theater, TV Eye, Pageant Space, Life World, Blade Study Gallery, Theatre 80 St Marks, among others. Becker’s performance as part of “Crisis Carnival” is written by Henry Gunderson.

Zoe Brezsny is a poet from the Bay Area living in New York. She hosts a weekly radio program on WFMU 91.1 Fm radio. She is the author of the zines Earthworks (Land and Sea Press), neuron waterfall (Heinzfeller Nileisist), Shortest Century with Anne Waldman (Erudite Fangs), and Ecstasy (Topos Press), an audio cassette of poems. Brezsny's poem sound works were recently exhibited in a two-person exhibition with the artist Karishma D'Souza at KAJE (Booklyn).

​​Riley Hooker works across graphic design, independent publishing and art—emphasizing close collaborations within art, fashion and architecture.  In 2012, Hooker co-founded the graphic design studio This is our work until disbanding in 2015 to launch Façadomy—an independent publishing project which explores paradox and desire as fundamental elements of liberatory thinking. Hooker’s writing and editorial work has been featured in PIN—UP Magazine, The Architect’s Newspaper, and the Walker Art Center’s design blog “The Gradient.” Hooker has lectured at graphic design and architecture programs internationally and has led workshops at both VCU and the Yale School of Art. Hooker’s collaborative work with queer artist collective “House of LaDosha” was featured in Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon at the New Museum in New York in 2018 and has been exhibited internationally since.

Nick Meehan is a New York City based designer interested in an architecture of the public. Meehan’s research revolves around the relationships between historicity, materiality, and organizational models. He received his Post-Professional Masters of Architecture at the Princeton School of Architecture where his thesis focused on the intersection of historic preservation and community-based development. He has worked under the offices of DVLPR,  Sub, Kashef Chowdury, and Carlos J. Soto. He has exhibited work at MoMA, ICA at VCU, China Academy of Fine Arts, Site Gallery, published articles with Log, and worked as a Fellow at Arts, Letters & Numbers. 

Mario Miron is a musician and artist based in New York. He has performed in the metal bands Liturgy and Junta as well as solo groove-metal electronics under the moniker ACCDNTL DRED. Miron co-runs the project space Gern en Regalia with Zoe Brezsny. He has exhibited his artwork nationally and internationally at Afternoon Projects (Vancouver), Pik Deutz (Cologne), Cierah (NYC), Sinkhole Projects (NYC), Interstate (NYC), One Trick Pony Gallery (LA), and Sleepy Hollow Fine Art (Portland), among others.

Journey Streams is a writer, performer, and nightlife historian based in Brooklyn. She has presented work at Blade Study, The Poetry Project, and Brown University. You can find her recent writing in the latest issue of Document Journal. Her first book, an oral history of the DIY nightclub The Spectrum will be published through Semiotext(e) in 2025. Streams has a tendency to put words in mouths, implicate audiences, and bite the hand that feeds her.

YATTA is the solo project of Sierra Leonean-American vocalist, composer, and sound artist, ricky sallay zoker. Their debut EP, Spirit Said Yes! was released on New York label PTP (Purple Tape Pedigree) and planted their stake in the city’s underground music scene, where over the years they’ve shared stages with a range of artists from Dreamcrusher and Beverly Glenn-Copeland to Cardi B and The Sun Ra Arkestra.

YATTA’s poetry album WAHALA served as the foundation for An Episode: Ricky’s Room, a self-written and performed theatrical production commissioned by The Shed. Over the years, YATTA has performed in festivals like New Forms, Sonic Acts, and Les Urbaines, as well as at institutions like MoMA PS1, MoMA, MOCA, and The Getty. Their music has been featured in magazines including Pitchfork, Nylon, and Broadcast Mag.